SOME 


RHODE  ISLAND  CONTRIBUTIONS 

TO  THE 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY, 


BY 


WILLIAM  BOOSTER. 


From  Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  at  the 
Semi-annual  Meeting,  April  27,  1892. 


Womrttt,  PMU't  m.  % 


PRESS  OF  CHARLES  HAMILTON, 
311  MAIN  STREET. 

1892. 


V 


•too  p Q Florence  Blackburn. 


Fsis 


SOME  RHODE  ISLAND  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  INTEL- 
LECTUAL LIFE  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY. 


The  history  of  colonies,  ancient  and  modern,  has  shown  a 
strikingly  uniform  experience  in  one  respect.  After  the 
strong  civilizing  forces  connected  with  the  first  generation 
of  settlers  have  died  away,  there  has  been  usually  a “dead 
point”  to  be  passed — df  one  may  use  the  language  of 
mechanical  science  — before  the  results  of  the  civilizing 
institutions  planted  in  native  soil  should  show  themselves. 
Such  a “dead  point”  is  to  be  observed  in  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  American  colonies,  in  the  century  roughly  con- 
ceived of  as  closing  in  1775  ; and  in  the  steps  which  led  to 
the  awakening  of  the  colonies  from  this  torpidity,  it  is 
certainly  a fact  of  curious  interest  that  the  colony  of  Rhode 
Island,  through  the  conjunction  of  certain  favorable  condi- 
tions, was  enabled  to  play  a far  more  influential  part  than 
ever  before  or  since. 

In  all  such  awakenings,  whether  in  the  Italian  Renaissance 
or  elsewhere,  one  finds,  as  the  two  essential  factors,  a com- 
petent impulse,  generally  from  without,  and  a peculiarly 
prepared  or  receptive  condition,  within.  In  the  person  of 
George  Berkeley,  among  others,  a very  necessary  impulse 
was  supplied,  in  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island  in  the  last 
century ; but  one  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  note- 
worthy degree  in  which  that  colony  was  congenial  soil  for 
the  influences  transmitted  by  the  English  scholar,  which 
may  be  traced  through  the  widely-separated  fields  of  litera- 
ture, painting,  architecture,  science  and  education. 

Among  the  essentially  local  conditions  which  made  this 
result  possible,  there  are  three  of  especial  prominence. 


b 4.0938 


4 


One  very  obvious  one  is  the  early  impetus  given  to  com- 
mercial development  at  Newport.1  In  several  particulars, 
Boston’s  commercial  operations  were  larger,  but  the  devel- 
oping tendencies  of  New  York  were  not  manifested  until 
late  in  the  century,2  and  in  peculiar  directions,  Newport 
held  a commercial  preeminence  until  the  Revolutionary 
War  dealt  it  an  overwhelming  blow.  The  increased  mate- 
rial resources  for  which  this  fact  stood  at  Newport,  were 
happily  considered  not  as  an  end  in  themselves,  but  as  a 
means  to  an  end,  namely,  the  advancement  of  art,  letters 
and  general  culture, — as  was  indeed  the  case  with  the 
merchant-princes  of  Florence  and  Venice.  With  each  new 
freight  sent  out,  there  was  a drawing  out  of  the  shell  of 
provincial  isolation,  and  with  each  new  freight  landed, 
came  a vivifying  contact  with  the  world  at  large.  It  there- 
fore had  already  resulted  that  Newport  was  far  from  being 
a barren  wilderness  intellectually,  when  Berkeley  arrived 
there  in  1729  ; — by  deliberate  purpose  from  the  first,  as 
appears  from  the  papers  published  by  Dr.  Fraser  in  his  life 
of  the  Dean;  perhaps,  he  says,  in  order  “to  establish 
friendly  correspondence  with  influential  New  Englanders.”3 
The  people  of  Newport  “loved  learning,”4  — to  quote  from 
the  accomplished  annalist  of  the  Redwood  Library  and 
Trinity  Church,  Mr.  George  C.  Mason,  — “and  they  had 
books  to  feed  that  love.”5  Their  ships6  “brought  to  them 
the  best  products  of  the  English  press,  with  contributions 
from  Geneva  and  Amsterdam ; books  that  were  read,  and 
discussed,  and  handed  down  as  heirlooms  — mentioned 
with  minuteness  in  wills  — from  father  to  son.”7  Another 

1 Weeden’s  “ Economic  history  of  New  England,”  v.  2,  p.  583. 

2 Cf.  the  interesting  comparison  between  Newport  and  New  York,  in  Pro- 
ceedings at  Installation  of  President  Low  of  Columbia  College,  p.  50. 

3 Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  155. 

4 Mason’s  “Annals  of  the  Redwood  Library,”  p.  9. 

5 Ibid.,  p.  9. 

6 “ Rarely  did  a vessel  sail  for  England  without  taking  out  an  order  for  new 
books.”  Mason’s  “ Reminiscences  of  Newport,”  p.  201. 

7 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  pp.  9, 10.  In  a foot-note,  instances  are  cited 
from  wills  before  1734. 


5 


phase  of  Rhode  Island  society  to  be  noticed,  across  the 
Narragansett  Bay,  in  what  was  long  known  as  the  Narra- 
gansett  Country,  was  a condition  of  society  not  identical 
indeed  with  that  at  Newport,  but  analogous  to  it.  Though 
they  were  themselves  largely  interested  financially  in  the 
commercial  ventures  of  Newport,  the  Narragansett  planters, 
with  farms,  in  some  instances  of  thousands  of  acres,  and 
with  slavery  on  a large  scale,  represented  “a  state  of  soci- 
ety which,”  to  quote  from  the  careful  study  1 made  of  it  by 
our  associate,  Dr.  Edward  Channing,  “has  no  parallel  in 
New  England.”  “The  later  leaders  of  Narragansett  soci- 
ety,”2  says  Dr.  Channing,  “were,  for  the  most  part,  well- 
educated  men,”  enjoying  “the  teachings  of  the  best  tutors,” 3 
and  possessing  a refinement  which  was  a natural  result  of 
their  peculiar  social  development. 

There  is  a second  local  condition  to  be  noticed  ; namely, 
the  openness  of  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island  to  outside  influ- 
ences. Very  naturally,  as  growing  out  of  the  circumstances 
of  their  settlement,  this  was  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
Puritan  colonies  by  which  she  was  bordered.  We  are  not 
now  concerned  with  the  matter  of  liberty  of  conscience  in 
questions  of  religion,  but  with  the  broader  subject  of  free- 
dom of  thought  in  any  field  ; though  undoubtedly  Berkeley, 
as  the  English  church  dignitary,  would  have  been  in  1729 
appreciably  less  welcome  at  Boston,  where  there  had  been 
the  fiercest  opposition  to  the  holding  of  the  English  church 
services  since  1686,  when  the  liturgy  was  read  here  (7.  e., 
in  Boston)  for  the  first  time,4  than  in  Rhode  Island,  which 
was  becoming  something  of  a stronghold  of  the  Church  of 
England  on  this  continent.5 

1 Charming’s  “Narragansett  planters,”  p.  23. 

2 Ibid.,  p.  7. 

3 Compare  Fraser,  in  Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  158. 

4 Sewall’s  “ Diary,”  May  30, 1686  (5  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  v.  5,  pp. 
142-3.) 

5 Bishop  Perry’s  “ History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,”  v.  1,  pp.  177, 
539. 


6 


What,  however,  of  Berkeley  as  the  man  of  letters,  the 
representative  on  our  shores  of  the  Age  of  Queen  Anne  in 
English  literature,  the  man  who  in  1713  was  associated 
with  Steele  as  one  of  the  contributors  of  brilliant  essays  to 
the  Guardian , and  was  in  almost  equal  closeness  of  associ- 
ciation  with  Pope,  Addison  and  Swift?1  Mr.  Delano  A. 
Goddard,  formerly  editor  of  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser , 
in  his  very  thorough  review  of  “The  press  and  literature 
of  the  provincial  period,”  in  1881,  remarks  : “ The  remark- 
able literary  revival  of  Queen  Anne’s  reign  was  little 
observed  or  felt  here”2  (i.  e.,  in  Boston).  Dr.  Palfrey, 
in  his  4th  volume,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
1723  catalogue  of  what  was  then  the  largest  library  in  the 
province,  — the  Harvard  College  library, — one  looks  in 
vain  for  the  works  of  Addison,  Pope,  Steele,  or  Swift3; 
and  another  representative  catalogue  of  more  than  eight 
hundred  titles  printed  in  1734,  is  also  cited  by  Dr. 
Palfrey,4  wherein  “no  copy  appears,  of  either  Shakespeare 
or  of  Milton.”  But  at  about  this  same  time,  1723-33,  as  may 
be  learned  from  manuscript  records  of  various  kinds,  there 
were  in  private  libraries  at  Newport,  such  books  as 
Spenser’s  “Faerie  Queene,”  the  first  folio  edition  of  1609  ; 
Butler’s  “Hudibras,”  James  Howell’s  “ Epistolae  Ho- 
Elianae,”  Milton’s  “Samson  Agonistes,”  and  the  1688 
edition  of  Dionysius,  in  the  Greek.5  No  one  of  these  books 
was  in  the  Harvard  College  library,  nor  did  it  contain  any 
copy  of  Ben  Jonson.  Judge  Samuel  Sewall,  in  1706, 
while  on  a journey  through  Rhode  Island,  records  in  his 
“Diary”  the  fact  of  his  finding  “a  folio”  edition  of  Ben 
Jonson  (whether  that  of  1631,  1641,  or  1692,  does  not 


1 Fraser’s  “ Life  of  Berkeley”  (in  “Works,”  v.  4,  ch.  3). 

2 “ Memorial  history  of  Boston,”  v.  2.,  p.  413. 

3 Palfrey’s  “ New  England,”  v.  4.  p.  384. 

4 Ibid.  This  is  “ A catalogue  of  books  on  all  arts  and  sciences,  to  be  sold 
at  the  shop  of  T.  Cox.”  Boston,  1734. 

5 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  pp.  10, 11. 


7 


appear),  in  a Rhode  Island  country  house.1  Dr.  Channing, 
in  his  paper  on  the  Narragansett  Country,  already  quoted, 
says:  “ McSparran, . Fayerweather,  and  Robinson  are  said 
to  have  possessed  large  collections  of  books,  and  we  know 
that  Colonel  Updike,  who  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  had  a library”  which  is  described  as  “full  of 
treasures,”  naming  among  other  works  in  it  a 1686  edition 
of  the  Iliad,  in  Greek,  as  well  as  Pope’s  translation  ; a 
1520  edition  of  Theognis,  in  Greek ; Ovid,  in  Latin ; 
Virgil,  Sallust,  and  Terence,  in  English  translations ; 
Johnson’s  “Lexicon  Chymicum,”  1678  ; Erasmus’s  Collo- 
quies, in  Latin ; and  Moliere’s  Plays,  in  an  English  trans- 
lation.2 Within  the  last  twelve  months  also,  a gift  has 
been  made  to  the  Providence  Public  Library,3  of  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pamphlets  and  other  publications, 
accumulated  through  five  successive  generations  of  this 
same  Updike  family,  of  the  utmost  interest  as  showing 
what  matters,  — music,4  the  drama,  belles-lettres,  English 
politics,  poetry,  etc., — occupied  the  attention  of  thinking 
and  reading  men  in  Rhode  Island  before  1800.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  we  find  both  in  the  Newport  and  the  Narragan- 
sett5  communities  the  conjunction,  by  no  means  common  in 
the  colonies  at  that  time,  of  instruction  by  private  tutors 
representing  the  best  English  training,  with  notable  private 
collections  of  books.  We  are  therefore  not  unprepared  for 
Mr.  Mason’s  statement,  in  showing  how  naturally  the  move- 
ment came  about  which  resulted  in  the  Redwood  Library 
corporation  (and  many  of . the  books  above  named  came  in 
due  time  to  that  library 6 ) , that  the  social  surroundings  of 

1 5 Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  v.  6,  p.  167. 

2 Channing’s  “ Narragansett  planters,”  pp.  7, 8. 

3 Fourteenth  annual  report  of  the  Providence  Public  Library,  p.  5. 

4 “ The  gift  of  an  organ  to  Trinity  Church  from  Dean  Berkeley,”  says  Mr. 
Mason,  “ quickly  followed  his  departure  from  Newport.”  (Mason’s  “ Annals 
of  Trinity  Church,  Newport,”  p.  58.  See  also  p.  139.) 

5 Channing’s  “ Narragansett  planters,”  p.  7. 

6 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  p.  11.  A catalogue  of  the  several  hundred 
volumes  purchased  for  the  library  in  1748,  fills  pages  494  to  5 14  of  the  same 

work. 


8 


the  people  of  Newport  were  such  as  to  cause  them  to 
appreciate  Dean  Berkeley’s  learning,  while,  he  says,  “the 
Dean  found  in  them  congenial  companions, — men  who 
could  sustain  their  part  in  a discussion  when  they  came 
together, — meeting  at  first  informally,  and  then  as  an 
organized  body.”  1 

What  shall  we  say,  however,  of  Berkeley  as  the  great 
idealist  in  philosophy,  the  formulator  of  “subjective  ideal- 
ism,”— to  use  the  epithet  of  Kant,2 — the  third  in  rank  of 
all  British  speculative  thinkers,  in  the  judgment  of  Mr. 
Royce?3  It  is  in  this  very  feature  that  we  find  the  third 
and  last  of  those  local  conditions  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering. From  the  first,  the  idealistic  habit  of  thought  or 
temper  of  mind  has  had  its  representatives  in  Rhode  Island. 
In  this  regard,  Ex-President  Porter,  of  Yale  University, 
finds  Roger  Williams  and  Berkeley  “in  many  particulars, 
kindred  spirits  ” 4 ; but  it  is  altogether  probable  that  suffi- 
cient weight  has  not  hitherto  been  given  to  the  debt  which 
is  due  to  the  Friends,  who,  when  repulsed  from  the  other 
colonies,  found  a congenial  abiding  place  in  every  corner  of 
Rhode  Island  territory,  and  by  the  year  1700  constituted 
about  one-half  of  its  population,  “owned  nearly  one-third  of 
the  meeting-houses,”5’  and  held  a large  percentage  of  the 
public  offices, — as  a natural  consequence,  of  course,  largely 
influencing  the  thought  of  the  colony. 

It  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  admire  or  even  to  justify 
all  the  acts  committed  by  the  Quakers  in  their  “ invasion” 
of  New  England,  to  be  impressed  by  a certain  side  of  their 
teachings, — that  side  doubtless  which  so  appealed  to  gentle 
Charles  Lamb  when  he  wrote  in  his  “Essays  of  Elia”: 
“Get  the  writings  of  John  Woolman  by  heart;  and  love 


1 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  p.  9. 

2 Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  368. 

3 Royce’s  “ Spirit  of  modern  philosophy,”  p.  93. 

4 Porter’s  “ Two-hundredth  birthday  of  Berkeley,”  p.  37. 

6 Mason’s  “ Trinity  Church,”  p.  30. 


9 


the  early  Quakers.”1  The  intellectual  attitude  held  by  the 
Friends  towards  the  44  inward  light”  has  indeed  repeatedly 
been  the  natural  starting-point  of  idealism  in  thought  and 
life.  44As  iron  sharpeneth  iron,”  so  unquestionably  the 
numerous  opportunities  which  Berkeley’s  contact  with  these 
Newport  thinkers  gave  him,  for  discussions  on  philosophical 
subjects, — particularly  with  his  fellow-members  of  the 
“Literary  and  Philosophical  Society”2  formed  in  1730, — 
afforded  him  a natural  medium  for  putting  into  organized 
form  views  which  he,  no  doubt,  had  long  held  in  less  defi- 
nite shape.  In  44  Alciphron,”  the  44  largest,  and  probably 
the  most  popular  of  Berkeley’s  works,” — to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  Dr.  Fraser,3  — and  written  wholly  during  his 
residence  at  Newport,4  we  have  what  the  distinguished 
writer  just  cited  accurately  calls  “a  fresh  proclamation  of 
Berkeley’s  spiritual  philosophy”5  and  it  is  one  which  we 
can  easily  believe  to  have  been  written,  chapter  by  chapter, 
after  an  hour  or  two  of  discussion  at  the  44  Society,”  or, 
when  seated,  as  attested  by  local  and  contemporary 
accounts,  at  the  “Hanging  Rocks,”6  near  Newport,  with 
the  ever-sounding  sea  at  his  feet,  and  the  most  charming  of 
landscapes  within  reach  of  his  gaze.  His  4 4 Alciphron,” 
indeed,  achieves  the  double  distinction  of  being  cast  in 
the  form  of  dialogues  which,  to  quote  Dr.  Fraser,  the 
Edinburgh  scholar,  4 4 are  better  fitted  than  any  [others]  in 
our  language  to  enable  the  English  reader  to  realize  the 


1 Lamb’s  44  Essays  of  Elia,”  — “A  Quakers’  meeting.” 

2 Pages  1-30  of  Mason’s  “Annals  of  the  Redwood  Library  ” are  devoted  to 
this  Society,— its  predecessor.  At  pp.  12-15  are  copied  the  44  Rules  and  regula- 
tions ” of  this  Society,  which  it  is  instructive  to  compare  with  the  “Statutes  ” 
of  the  earlier  (1705)  44  Society,”  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  to  which  Berkeley 
had  belonged.  Berkeley’s  44  Works,”  v.  4,  pp.  23-5. 

3 Berkeley’s  44  Works,”  v.  2,  p.  3. 

4 1729-31.  It  was  published  in  London,  on  his  return,  in  1732.  An  Ameri- 
can reprint,  under  the  charge  of  President  Dwight,  appeared  at  New  Haven 
in  1803. 

5 Berkeley’s  44  Works,”  v.  4,  p.  196. 

0 Berkeley’s  44  Works,”  v.  4,  p.  168:  Porter’s  44  Berkeley,”  p.  48. 


10 


charm  of  Cicero  and  Plato  ” 1 ; and  at  the  same  time,  to 
quote  Dr.  Porter,  the  New  Haven  scholar,  are  abounding 
“in  local  color  and  allusions.”  He  adds:  “One  who 
stands  on  Hony man’s  Hill,  and  turns  over  its  pages,  can 
follow  with  his  eye  the  several  features  of  the  landscape 
which  the  author  wrought  into  his  pictures  of  nature  and  of 
life.  Even  a group  of  fox-hunters  rushes  across  the  land- 
scape as  Berkeley  had  seen  them  many  a time  in  Narragan- 
sett.”2  It  is  no  wonder  that  his  biographer  remarks: 
“The  cosmopolitan  Berkeley  has  left  curiously  few  local 
impressions  at  any  of  the  places  where  he  lived,  perhaps 
more  in  Rhode  Island  than  anywhere  else.3  The  island4 
still  acknowledges  that,  by  his  visit,  it  has  been  touched 
with  the  halo  of  a great  and  sacred  reputation.  ” 5 

The  best  of  testimony  to  the  indigenous  nature  of  these 
idealistic  tendencies  in  Rhode  Island,  and  to  the  peculiarly 
local  conditions  which  we  have  enumerated,  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  on  Berkeley’s  sudden  and  unexpected  return 
to  England  they  did  not  die  out,  nor  even  languish.  Four 
years  later,  in  1735,6  we  find  the  society  rendering  its 
organization  more  definite,  and  twelve  years  later  it 
received  incorporation  from  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
colony,7  under  the  name  of  “The  Company  of  the  Red- 
wood Library.”  Mr.  Mason’s  exhaustive  studies8  of  these 

1 Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  2,  p.  3. 

2 Porter’s  “ Berkeley,”  pp.  48-9. 

3 “ He  appears,”  says  Dr.  Porter,  “ not  to  have  travelled  in  New  England,” 
p.  41.  Rev.  Joseph  Sewall’s  diary  and  Benjamin  Walker’s  diary  mention  him 
as  being  at  Boston  and  Cambridge  in  the  month  in  which  he  returned  to  Eng- 
land. (Cited  in  H.  A.  Hill’s  “ History  of  the  Old  South  Church,”  v.  1,  p.  457.) 

4 Aquidneck,  or  “ Rhode  Island”;  the  island  on  which  Newport  is  situated. 
Whitehall,  Berkeley’s  estate,  although  in  1729  in  the  corporate  limits  of  New- 
port, has,  since  1743,  formed  a part  of  the  town  of  Middletown.  For  his  visits 
to  Narragansett,  see  below. 

3 Berkeley’s  “Works,”  v.  4,  p.  190. 

6 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  p.  12. 

7 R.  I.  Col.  Records,  v.  5,  p.  227. 

8 Based  almost  exclusively  on  the  original  records  (printed  in  his  volumes) 
which  had  often  been  consulted  in  manuscript,  but  are  now,  fortunately,  acces- 
sible to  students. 


Mr.  William  E.  Foster  : — “In  a paper  presented  by 
me  at  the  semi-annual  meeting  one  year  ago,  I in  one 
place  used  the  language  ‘a  Royal  Academician,’1  referring 
to  John  Smibert.  It  is  true  that,  as  the  foot-note  indi- 
cates, this  language  was  based  on  Walpole’s  words,  ‘ ad- 
mittance into  the  academy’  (Walpole’s  ‘Anecdotes  of 
painting  in  England,’  vol.  2,  p.  673)  ; but  inasmuch  as 
the  Royal  Academy  of  Arts  dates  from  a later  period,  it 
is  plain  that  Walpole’s  language  must  be  taken  as  referring 
to  some  one  of  the  various  ‘ academies  ’ which  he  else- 
where mentions  (Walpole,  vol.  2,  pp.  647,  665,  etc.).” 

1 Proceedings  at  Semi-Annual  Meeting  American  Antiquarian  Society,  April 
27, 1892,  p.  111. 


11 


early  years  have  enabled  us  to  see  more  clearly  than  ever 
before,  not  only  how  wide  were  the  ramifications  of 
Berkeley’s  influence,  through  literary  and  philosophical 
channels,  but  also  through  various  artistic  and  scientific 
channels  ; in  the  one  case  chiefly  of  local  origin,  in  the 
other  more  closely  identified  with  the  company  of  men 
who  came  from  England  to  Rhode  Island  either  with 
Berkeley  or  in  these  same  years  of  his  residence  at 
Newport. 

For  there  is  an  aspect  of  Berkeley’s  many-sided  charac- 
ter which  we  have  not  yet  noticed  ; namely,  Berkeley  as 
the  promoter  of  science  and  art,  the  Englishman  who,  in 
his  seven  years’  absence  (1713-1720)  on  the  continent,  had 
placed  himself  in  closest  contact  with  the  fruits  of  the 
Renaissance  in  Italy,  and  who  now  transmitted  the  results 
of  this  contact  not  only  to  England,  but  to  America  as  well. 
Among  those  who  were  associated  with  Berkeley  in  Italy1 
was  John  Smibert,  a Royal  Academician.2  He  had  been 
for  some  time  in  Italy,  studying  there  the  great  master- 
pieces of  Raphael,  Titian,  Yan  Dyck  and  others.3  When 
Berkeley  sailed  for  America,  Smibert  sailed  with  him, 
enough  of  an  idealist,  like  himself,  to  be  enchanted, — so 
we  are  told, — with  Berkeley’s  far-reaching  plan  for  civiliz- 
ing the  western  world.  To  the  very  thorough  researches 
of  Mr.  Augustus  T.  Perkins,  twelve  years  ago,  we  owe  a 
most  creditable  nucleus  of  a descriptive  catalogue4  of  such 
portraits  from  Smibert’s  hand  as  can  now  be  identified, 
found  as  they  are  in  various  portions  of  Rhode  Island, 
at  New  Haven,  at  Worcester,  in  the  Memorial  Hall  at 
Cambridge,  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  on  the 
walls  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and  else- 

1 Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  153. 

2 Walpole’s  “ Anecdotes  of  painting  in  England,”  v.  2,  p.  673. 

3 Walpole,  v.  2,  p.  673.  His  copy  of  Van  Dyck’s  portrait  of  Cardinal  Benti- 
voglio  now  hangs  in  the  Memorial  Hall  at  Harvard  University.  (Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Proceedings,  v.  16,  pp.  393-4.) 

4 Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  v.  16,  pp.  393-9,  474-5 ; v.  17,  pp.  94-7. 


12 


where  here  in  Boston.  There  are,  besides,  many  in  private 
ownership  in  this  city  and  the  neighborhood. 

The  curiously  prophetic  foot-note  in  Horace  Walpole’s 
account  of  Smibert  (in  his  “Anecdotes  of  painting  in  Eng- 
land” ),  has  a decided  interest,  considering  the  date  at  which 
it  was  written.  He  says:  “As  our  disputes  and  politics 
have  travelled  to  America,  is  it  not  probable  that  poetry 
and  painting  too  will  revive  amidst  those  extensive  tracts  ?”  1 
Prophetic  indeed  as  regards  Rhode  Island  is  this  remark, 
for  although  Boston  became  his  home  at  some  period2  after 
the  sudden  departure  of  Berkeley,  Smibert  heads  a distin- 
guished line  of  artists  who  have  been  identified  with  Rhode 
Island,  either  by  birth  or  residence,  in  the  last  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years, — Cosmo  Alexander  of  Newport,  who  taught 
Stuart 3 ; Gilbert  Stuart,  himself,  born  in  the  Narragansett 
Country  ; Robert  Feke,  of  Newport4  ; Edward  G.  Malbone, 
of  Newport;  Washington  Allston,  who  studied  painting  at 
Newport;  and  William  Morris  Hunt,  who  in  comparatively 
recent  years  studied  there.  There  seems  to  be  no  good 
reason  for  believing  that  Smibert  gave  lessons  (as  suggested 
by  Dunlap)5  to  Copley, — who  was  apparently  a spiritual 
child  of  that  early  American  artist,  Peter  Pelham,  as  Mr. 
William  H.  Whitmore’s  researches6  have  shown  for  us.  Yet 
Copley,  like  Allston,  may  have  learned  from  Smibert’s 
work  even  if  not  from  himself.  Allston  remarks:  “I  am 
grateful  to  Smybert  for  .the  instruction  he,  or  rather  his 


1 Walpole’s  “ Anecdotes  of  painting,”  v.  2,  p.  673. 

2 During  Berkeley’s  stay  at  Newport  Smibert  accompanied  the  Dean  to  Nar- 
ragansett, remaining  there  some  time.  Stiles’s  Connecticut  Election  Sermon, 
1783  (‘‘The  United  States  elevated  to  glory  and  honor,”  pp.  11,12;  Updike’s 
“Narragansett,”  pp.  523-4).  It  would  appear  that  some  of  his  portraits  of 
Rhode  Island  sitters  were  painted  at  this  time.  A letter  by  Smibert,  dated 
Sept.  22,  1735  (now  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  George  C.  Mason),  shows  him  to 
have  been  then  at  Boston. 

3 Mason’s  “ Gilbert  Stuart,”  pp.  6, 7. 

4 Tuckerman’s  “ Book  of  the  artists,”  p.  47. 

5 Dunlap’s  “ Arts  of  design,”  v.  1,  p.  22. 

s Whitmore’s  “ Notes  concerning  Peter  Pelham,”  etc.,  p.  18. 


13 


work,  gave  me.” 1 Rhode  Island  has  thus  been  enabled  to 
make  enviable  contributions  to  this  phase  of  aesthetic 
development. 

Architecture  is  another  of  the  arts,  the  development  of 
which  on  our  shores  has  an  interesting  connection  with 
Berkeley’s  Italian  sojourn.  Berkeley’s  own  extensive  archi- 
tectural designs  were  probably  carried  back  to  England 
with  him  (and  were  afterwards  known  to  be  preserved  in 
his  family)2;  but  those  of  Peter  Harrison,  the  English 
architect,  who  arrived  in  Newport  during  Berkeley’s  resi- 
dence there,  and  who  had  while  in  England  been  associated3 
with  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  in  the  planning  and  construction 
of  Blenheim  House,4  are  embodied  in  buildings  familiar  to 
us  all.  Here  in  Boston,  King’s  Chapel,5  erected  1749, 
and  across  the  Charles,  Christ  Church,6  Cambridge,  com- 
pleted in  1761,  perpetuate  his  name.7  Harrison’s  residence 
appears  to  have  been  for  a time  at  Newport ; then  in  Boston  ; 
then,  after  a brief  return  to  England,  in  Newport  once 
more,  since  we  find  him  spoken  of  in  the  description  of 
Christ  Church,  by  a former  rector,  Rev.  Dr.  Nicholas 
Hoppin,  as  “Mr.  Peter  Harrison,  then  (1759)  residing  at 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  whose  designs  of  public  buildings 
have  been  much  admired  for  correct  taste.”8  A letter  still 

1 Tuckermau’s  “ Book  of  the  artists,”  p.  43. 

2 Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  153. 

3 “Memorial  history  of  Boston,”  v.  4,  p.  469;  U.  S.  govt,  report  on  “ Public 
libraries,”  1876,  pt.  1,  p.  15. 

4 Blenheim  House,  completed  1715,  is  described  with  illustrations  in  Eccles’s 
“New  guide  to  Blenheim  Palace,”  14th  ed.,  1865;  also,  in  the  Cosmopolitan , 
Jan.,  1890,  v.  8,  pp.  317-24;  Illustrated  London  News,  v.  87,  pp.  462-6; 
and  Rimmer’s  “ Pleasant  spots  around  Oxford,”  pp.  206-28. 

5 “ Memorial  history  of  Boston,”  v.  2,  p.  498,  v.  4,  pp.  469-70;  Greenwood’s 
“ History  of  King’s  Chapel,”  pp.  110,  118-20. 

6 “ A sermon  on  the  reopening  of  Christ  Church,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  * * * 
with  a historical  notice,”  by  Rev.  Dr.  Nicholas  Hoppin.  Boston,  1858,  p.  23. 

7 “ The  interior  of  King’s  Chapel,”  says  Mr.  C.  A.  Cummings,  “ was  the 
first  in  the  colony  to  exhibit  real  architectural  merit.”  (Memorial  history  of 
Boston,  v.  4,  p.  470.) 

8 Bishop  Perry’s  “ History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church,”  v.  1,  p.  589. 

It  is  also  corroborated  by  the  language  of  the  manuscript  “ Record  of  votes 

and  resolutions,”  &c.,  of  the  King’s  Chapel  Committee  in  1749,  printed  in  Green- 
wood’s “ King’s  Chapel,”  p.  118,  namely : “ Mr.  Harrison  of  Rhode  Island.” 


14 


preserved,  dated  November  24,  1759,  and  signed  by  a 
committee  of  the  Society  of  Christ  Church,  says:  “We 
have  applied  to  a masterly  architect  for  a plan.”1  In 
regard  to  one  of  the  three  buildings  2 with  which  Harrison 
enriched  the  Newport  community,  which  he  chiefly  made 
his  home,  namely,  the  Redwood  Library  building,  erected 
1750,  an  architect  of  our  own  time — Mr.  George  C. 
Mason  — who  had  occasion  to  make  professional  measure- 
ments in  1875  thus  testifies:  “The  building  erected  by 
Harrison  was  most  carefully  planned  and  studied ; its  pro- 
portions, details,  columns,  etc.,  being  in  strict  accord  with 
the  rules  of  classic  architecture.” 3 It  is  of  interest  to  note, 
as  confirming  the  view  of  early  society  in  Newport  already 
referred  to,  that  Trinity  Church,  Newport,  a most  interest- 
ing specimen  of  colonial  architecture,  was  completed  in 
1726,  almost  half  a dozen  years  before  Harrison’s  arrival 
there,  and  is  attributed  by  Mr.  Mason  to  Richard  Munday, 
of  Newport.4  The  details  of  this  building,  as  well  as 
the  later  development  of  colonial  architecture  at  Providence, 
give  evidence  of  close  study  from  English  models. 

The  ramifications  of  Berkeley’s  influence  are  seen,  how- 
ever, in  science  as  well  as  art.  In  1729  (in  the  year  of 
Berkeley’s  arrival,  though  not  in  the  same  ship5),  there 
arrived  at  Newport  the  first  of  a line  of  several  thoroughly 
well  educated  physicians  who  made  their  home  in  that 
town  ; namely,  Dr.  Thomas  Moffatt,6  a native  of  Edinburgh. 
His  preparation  for  medical  practice  was  obtained  in  succes- 
sion at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  University  of 
Leyden,  a circumstance  of  some  curious  interest,  as  pre- 

1 Bishop  Perry’s  “ History  of  the  American  Episcopal  C hurch,”  v.  1,  p.  589; 
Hoppin,  p.  23. 

2 Mentioned  by  Mr.  Mason  (“  Trinity  Church,”  p.  114). 

3 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Librarj7,”  p.  36. 

4 Mason’s  “ Trinity  Church,”  pp.  43,  51. 

5 Peters’s  “ Sermon”  * * * “ on  the  death  of  Thomas  Moffatt,  M.D.”  (Lon- 
don, 1787),  cited  in  Mason’s  “Redwood  Library,”  p.  29. 

6 Mason’s  “Redwood  Library,”  pp.  27-30;  Sabine’s  “Biographical  sketches 
of  loyalists  of  the  American  Revolution  ” (ed.  1864) , v.  2,  p.  85 ; the  latter  ac- 
count being  incorrect  in  several  of  its  details. 


15 


cisely  the  same  order  of  succession  was  observed  in  the 
medical  studies  of  Dr.  Thomas  Brett,1  who  arrived  at 
Newport  as  early  as  1735;  Dr.  William  Hunter2  (cousin 
and  namesake  of  one  of  the  most  eminent  surgeons  of  that 
century  in  Europe),  who  arrived  at  Newport  in  1752  ; and, 
among  those  native  to  the  soil,  Dr.  Benjamin  Waterhouse,3 
born  in  Newport  in  1754,  of  Quaker  parentage,  who  was 
chosen  in  1783  Hersey  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Prac- 
tice of  Physic  in  the  Harvard  Medical  School, — the  first 
to  occupy  the  chair, — and  who  retained  that  position  until 
1812. 4 A variation  from  the  routine  of  Edinburgh  and 
Leyden  is,  however,  to  be  observed  in  Dr.  Sylvester 
Gardiner,  born  in  South  Kingstown,  Rhode  Island,  in  1717, 
who  began  practice  here  in  Boston  as  early  as  1761 5 ; and 
Dr.  Solomon  Drowne,  born  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  1753, 6 
both  of  whom  pursued  their  medical  studies  at  London 
and  Paris.7  Both  Dr.  Gardiner  and  Dr.  Waterhouse 
were  honorably  connected  with  movements  for  prevention 
against  small-pox,  by  inoculation,8  and  by  vaccination.9 
To  two  of  these  educated  physicians,  also,  we  are  indebted 
for  the  steps  making  possible  Gilbert  Stuart’s  brilliant 
career, — to  Dr.  Moffatt,  at  whose  request  Stuart’s  father 
came  over  to  Rhode  Island,10  and  to  Dr.  Hunter,  who  first 
discovered  the  young  painter’s  genius  and  gave  him  com- 
missions.11 


1 Also  a member  of  Berkeley’s  Society.  Mason’s  “Redwood  Library,”  pp. 
16, 17. 

2 R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  v.  7,  p.  251. 

3 Ibid.,  p.  255. 

4 Harvard  Quinquennial  catalogue,  1890,  p.  30. 

5 Sabine’s  “ Loyalists,”  v.  1,  pp.  459-62. 

6 Bartlett’s  “ Descendants  of  John  Russell,”  pp.  111-15. 

7 Sabine,  v.  1,  p.  459;  Bartlett,  p.  111. 

8 Dr.  Gardiner.  See  his  letter  to  the  town  of  Boston,  1761;  Dr.  Samuel  A. 
Green’s  centennial  address  on  the  “ History  of  medicine  in  Massachusetts,” 
p.  78;  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  v.  4,  pp.  324-9. 

9 Dr.  Waterhouse.  See  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  7,  pp.  259, 60. 

10  Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  p.  28. 

11  Mason’s  “ Gilbert  Stuart,”  p.  6. 


16 


In  the  native  membership  of  the  “Society,”  as  repre- 
sented by  Henry  Collins,1  James  Honyman,2  Abraham 
Redwood,3  and  others  in  Newport,  as  well  as  in  the  case  of 
Daniel  Updike,4  of  the  Narragansett  Country,  one  can 
easily  recognize  the  evidences  of  the  intellectual  life  above 
indicated.  Down  to  about  the  year  1740,  it  was  far  other- 
wise with  the  northern  part  of  the  colony, — Providence  and 
the  vicinity.  The  extraordinary  pluck,  energy  and  enter- 
prise by  which,  chiefly  between  1740  and  1760,  Stephen 
Hopkins, — the  only  Providence  man  in  Berkeley’s  “Soci- 
ety,”— brought  about  a complete  reversal  of  the  attitude  of 
isolation  and  torpidity  which  had  heretofore  dominated  the 
Providence  community,  constitutes  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting chapters  in  the  annals  of  social  development. 
Through  his  efforts  and  those  of  his  associates,5  a printing- 
press  was  set  up,  a public  market  established,  the  streets 
paved,  a fire  department  established,  a book-store  and  a 
public  library  opened,  wharves  and  docks  extended,  and  a 
flourishing  foreign  and  domestic  commerce  built  up.  By 
1760,  there  were  more  than  eighty-four  vessels6  owned  by 
Providence  merchants,  and  the  next  seven  years 7 showed  a 
very  striking  increase  and  extension  of  her  commerce. 
With  the  rise  of  her  commerce  the  natural  results  followed 
in  Providence  as  elsewhere.  Not  only  was  it  the  case  that 
in  due  time  the  ships  of  the  Browns,  the  Nightingales  and 
the  Russells,  of  Providence,  as  those  of  the  Malbones  of 

1 A native  of  Newport,  1699;  educated  in  England;  a patron  of  “ literature 
and  the  fine  arts.”  (Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  pp.  26-7 ; Newport  His * 
torical  Magazine , v.  2,  p.  88.) 

2 Son  of  the  first  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Newport. 

3 Donor  of  the  Redwood  Library. 

4 See  sketch  of  him  in  W.  Updike’s  “ History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Narragansett,”  p.  118-19.  He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Berkeley,  who  was  a 
visitor  at  his  house,  and  who  presented  him  with  a silver  coffee  pot,  still  owned 
in  the  family.  (Updike,  p.  119.) 

3 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  ch.  5. 

6 Letter  of  Moses  Brown  to  Tristam  Burges,  Jan.  12, 1836.  (MS.  owned  by 
R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.) 

7 Report  to  town,  1767;  cited  in  petition  of  1778.  (Staples’s  “Annals  of 
Providence,”  p.  282.) 


17 


Newport,  and  the  Higginsons  of  Salem,1  were  whitening 
every  sea  with  their  sails,  but  one  begins  to  recognize  the 
spreading  throughout  that  community  also  of  an  enlightened 
interest,  not  only  in  science  but  in  art.  This  is  testified  by 
the  notable  instances  of  colonial  architecture,2  belonging 
chiefly  to  the  years  1770-1800,  which  have  given  Provi- 
dence in  our  own  day  an  enviable  name  among  architects, 
and  of  colonial  furniture  3 also ; as  well  as  by  the  notable 
achievement  in  astronomy,  to  be  noticed  later,  and  also  in 
what  may  be  properly  entitled  belles-lettres.  The  printing- 
press  set  up  at  Providence  in  1762  was  only  in  its  fifth 
year  when  there  appeared  from  it  a reprint  of  the  “ Letters 
of  the  Right  Honourable  Lady  M — y W — y M — e”4,  etc. 
Providence,  1766.  This  is  the  series  of  her  letters  written 
during  Mr.  Wortley’s  residence  at  Constantinople  as  Eng- 
lish ambassador,  and  the  one  which  Lord  Jeffrey5  described 
as  “unrivalled,  we  think,  by  any  epistolary  compositions 
in  our  language.”  One  can  understand,  for  instance,  the 
reprinting  in  the  American  colonies  in  the  last  century,  of 
such  a work  as -Sidney  on  “Government,”  or  even  of 
Blackstone’s  “Commentaries,”  in  view  of  the  eager  inter- 
est in  the  relations  of  the  colonies  to  the  mother  country, 
which  was  then  fast  developing ; but  the  interest  which 
would  lead  to  the  reprinting  of  such  a work  as  these 

1 Batchelor’s  ‘‘Social  equilibrium,”  pp.  280-2;  Higginson’s  “ Travellers  and 
outlaws,”  p.  14;  Cleveland’s  “ Voyages  of  a merchant  navigator,”  pp.  7,8. 

2 American  Architect,  v.  21,  plate  577;  v.  22,  plate  610  (1887).  Corner  and 
Soderholtz’s  “ Examples  of  domestic  colonial  architecture  in  New  England,” 
(1891). 

3 Dr.  Irving  W.  Lyon’s  “ Colonial  furniture  in  New  England.”  Dr.  Lyon  here 
reprints  (pp.  265-6),  a “table  of  prices,”  for  the  year  1757,  agreed  upon  by  six 
Providence  cabioet-makers  engaged  in  supplying  the  demand  for  chests,  cases 
of  drawers  with  “ claws,”  etc.  Compare  Mason’s  “ Reminiscences  of  New- 
port,” pp.  49, 50. 

4 Reprinted  from  the  4th  London  edition.  The  original  edition,  London, 
1763  (the  year  succeeding  the  author’s  death),  also  suppressed,  as  in  the  case  of 
this  edition,  the  full  name  of  the  writer; — Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu.  See 
Gentleman’s  Magazine,  v.  33,  p.  259. 

5 Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1803,  v.  2,  p.  512;  reprinted  in  Jeffrey’s  “ Con- 
tributions to  the  Edinburgh  Review v.  3,  p.  561.  (1843.) 

2 


18 


“Letters”  must  have  been  almost  purely  literary,  with  no 
intermingling  of  practical  or  ulterior  ends.  The  distin- 
guished founder  of  our  own  society,  Isaiah  Thomas,  in  his 
“Catalogue  of  publications”1  before  1776,  enables  us  to 
gain  a very  vivid  idea  of  the  literature  which  issued  from 
the  American  printing-presses  of  that  period,  and  engaged 
the  attention  of  American  readers, — often  enough,  indeed, 
a depressingly  monotonous  succession  of  funeral  sermons 
on  persons  killed  by  lightning,  alternated  with  discourses 
on  total  depravity.  In  view  of  this  tendency,  the  fact  that 
the  following  publications  were  included  in  a single  decade’s 
issues  of  the  Providence  printing-press, — at  first  under  the 
charge  of  William  Goddard  and  others,  and  later  of  John 
Carter,  an  apprentice  and  associate  of  Benjamin  Franklin 
at  Philadelphia,— - is  of  no  little  interest : 

(1)  1762  (continued  in  1765).  “An  historical  account  of  the  planting 

and  growth  of  Providence,”  by  Stephen  Hopkins.  (In  the 
pages  of  the  Providence  Gazette. ) 

“ Verses  on  Doctor  Mayhew’s  Book  of  observations  on  the 
charter  and  conduct  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel.”  By  a gentleman  of  Rhode  Island  colony. 
Providence:  William  Goddard,  1763. 

“ The  rights  of  colonies  examined.”  By  Stephen  Hopkins. 
Providence:  William  Goddard,  1764.  (Later  ed.  1765.) 

“Thanksgiving  discourse on  the  repeal  of 

the  Stamp  Act.”  By  David  S.  Rowland.  Providence : 
Sarah  Goddard  & Co.,  1766. 

“Letters  of  the  Right  Honourable  Lady  M — y W — y M — e.”  2 
Providence:  Sarah  Goddard  & Co.,  1766. 

“Discourse  in  Providence,  July  25,  1768,  at  the  dedication 
of  the  tree  of  liberty.”  By  Silas  Downer.  Providence: 
John  Waterman,  1768. 

‘ ‘ Catalogue  of  all  the  books  belonging  to  the  Providence 
Library.”  Providence:  Waterman  & Russell,  1768. 

“ An  account  of  the  observation  of  Venus  upon  the  sun,  the 
third  day  of  June,  1769,  at  Providence  in  New  England, 
with  some  account  of  the  use  of  these  observations.”  By 
Benjamin  West.  Providence:  John  Carter,  1769. 3 

1 “Archaeologia  Americana,”  v.  6,  pp.  309-666. 

2 Already  mentioned  above. 

3 Of  the  above,  only  Nos.  2,  4,  6,  7 and  8 are  in  Thomas’s  “Catalogue.” 


(2)  1763. 

(3)  1764. 

(4)  1766. 

(5)  1766. 

(6)  1768. 

(7)  1768. 

(8)  1769. 


19 


The  comprehensive  range  of  this  list,  comprising  as  it 
does,  poetry,  political  science,  history,  belles-lettres,  bibli- 
ography and  astronomy,  would  be  not  at  all  discreditable 
to  a New  England  town  of  5,000  inhabitants,  even  in  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Although  the  reader  will  fail  to  discover  in  Berkeley’s 
writings  any  tendency  towards  historical  studies,  there  is 
every  reason  why  methods  such  as  his  should  have  left  such 
a tendency  behind  him  in  Rhode  Island.  Not  until  definite 
steps  have  been  taken  towards  the  accumulating  of  written 
and  printed  materials  in  libraries,  is  any  community  likely 
to  witness  the  rise  of  a local  annalist.  The  earliest  of 
writers  within  the  limits  of  this  colony  to  undertake  any 
comprehensive  account  of  it  for  publication  were  both  mem- 
bers of  Berkeley’s  “Society”  at  Newport, — the  Rev.  John 
Callender1  and  Gov.  Stephen  Hopkins. 

How  early  in  life  the  historical  instinct  had  had  a footing 
in  Stephen  Hopkins’s  mind,  cannot  be  certainly  known. 
A strong  bent  in  this  direction  may  have  been  given  to  it  by 
his  access  when  a boy  to  a notable  “circulating  library,”2 
for  those  times,  established  near  the  home  of  his  grand- 
parents in  the  earlier  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  “He 
himself  began  early  to  collect  a library  of  his  own,3  which, 
says  one  who  was  able  to  examine  it,  ‘ was  large  and  valua- 
ble for  the  time.’”4  “ His  visits  to  Newport,  begun  as  early 
as  1732,  and  continued  without  interruption,  several  times 
in  each  year,”5  doubtless  made  him  familiar  with  the  treas- 
ures of  the  Redwood  Library.  “Like  Franklin,”  he  and 
his  associates  in  Providence  “found  no  good  bookseller’s 
shop  ” 6 in  his  own  town  at  first,  and  in  consequence, 

1 A native  of  Boston;  a graduate  from  Harvard  College,  1723;  author  of  the 
first  attempt  at  a historical  view  of  the  Rhode  Island  colony,  the  “Historical 
discourse,”  1739  (reprinted  as  v.  4 of  the  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections). 

2 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  p.  46. 

3 Ibid.,  pp.  48-9. 

4 C.  C.  Beaman’s  “ History  of  Scituate,”  p.  18. 

3 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  p.  127. 

6 Ibid.,  pt.  1,  p.  128. 


20 


“raised  and  sent  to  England  a sum  of  money  sufficient  to 
purchase  books  to  furnish  a small  library,”1  and  before  long 
advanced  to  the  point  of  making  it  “ a public  subscription 
library,”2  apparently  as  early  as  1750.  In  1754,  a memo- 
rial of  this  early  “ Providence  Library,” — of  which  the 
Providence  Athenaeum 3 of  our  day  is  the  successor, — 
appears  on  the  records  of  the  General  Assembly,4  and  in 
1768,  there  was  printed  the  catalogue  of  its  books  already 
mentioned;  — a very  significant  commentary  on  the  stage 
of  advancement  then  reached  in  that  town.  “Aside  from 
these  two  public  subscription  libraries  in  this  small  colony 
of  Rhode  Island,  there  was  for  some  time  after  the  middle 
of  the  century  only  one  other  in  New  England  outside  of 
Boston.”5  Hopkins  himself  was  a close  and  severe  student, 
“a  man,”  says  Judge  Durfee,6  “of  extraordinary  capacity,” 
“omnivorous  of  knowledge,  which  his  energetic  mind 
rapidly  converted  into  power,”  a characterization  which  is 
strikingly  confirmed  by  President  John  Adams’s7  well-known 
reference  to  his  wide  range  of  reading.  He  had  some  very 
marked  qualifications  for  the  task  of  chronicling  the  colony’s 
history,  if  we  may  judge  from  Moses  Brown’s  testimony. 
“ Holding  all  abridgments  and  abridgers,”  so  runs  the 
account,8  “ in  very  low  estimation,”  “ he  perseveringly 
perused”  the  original  sources  of  information.  To  him 
indeed  are  all  subsequent  writers  indebted  for  the  amassing 
and  preservation  of  those  manuscript  sources  of  Rhode 
Island  history  whose  treasures  have  not  even  yet  been  fully 
discovered  and  made  available. 

1 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  p.  129. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Ibid .,  pt.  1,  p.  131. 

4 R.  I.  Col.  Records,  v.  5,  pp.  378-9. 

5 Foster’s  “Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  pp.  47-8,  132-3;  U.  S.  govt,  report  on 
“ Public  libraries,”  1876,  pt.  1,  pp.  19, 15. 

6 “ Gleanings  from  the  judicial  history  of  Rhode  Island,”  pp.  92-3. 

7 John  Adams’s  “ Works,”  v.  3,  pp.  11, 12. 

8Printed  in  Sanderson’s  “Signers,”  v.  6,  p.  248.  As  an  instance,  Thurloe’s 
“ State  papers”  is  mentioned  by  Hunter  as  a work  which  Governor  Hopkins 
“ read  through  and  annotated.”  ( Newport  Historical  Magazine , v.  2,  p.  141.) 


21 


There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Governor  Hopkins’s  efforts 
at  collecting  this  manuscript  material  began  quite  early  in 
life — perhaps  so  early  as  1740.  Most  of  it  was  handed 
over  by  him  to  Senator  Theodore  Foster,  himself  a most 
assiduous  antiquarian  during  the  half-century  from  1775  to 
1825  l.  After  Governor  Hopkins  had  become  convinced 
that  the  infirmities  of  age  and  other  reasons  would  prevent 
his  completing  his  original  design,  he  offered  to  further  a 
similar  purpose  on  the  part  of  Senator  Foster,  by  furnish- 
ing him  written  materials  and  verbal  information.  Senator 
Foster  states : “It  was  agreed  that  I should,  one  afternoon 
in  a week,  go  to  his  house  for  that  purpose.  I accordingly 
did  so  for  some  time.”2  The  pupil  whom  Governor 
Hopkins  had  apparently  inspired  with  his  own  deep  inter- 
est, most  signally  furthered  his  work  of  securing  original 
authorities;  “not  only  collecting,”  says  Mr.  Samuel  G. 
Arnold,3  the  historian  who  has  in  our  century  built  upon 
the  labors  of  both  of  them,  “a  very  large  number  of  origi- 
nal papers”  in  addition  to  those  of  Governor  Hopkins,  but 
making  “copies  of  nearly  the  whole  of  the  colony  records.”4 
The  accumulations  of  both  scholars  comprise  the  invaluable 
collection  known  as  the  “Foster  Papers,”  amounting, — 
originals  and  copies, — to  about  one  thousand.5  They  are 
preserved  in  eighteen  bound  volumes,6  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society.  When  it  is 
remembered  that  the  efforts  of  these  two  men  preceded  the 
formation  of  any  local  historical  society  in  the  State,  for  the 
collection  and  preservation  of  such  material,  it  will  be  seen 
how  largely  they  have  laid  succeeding  generations  under 
obligation.  Theodore  Foster  had  been  since  1800  a corre- 

1 Senator  from  Rhode  Island  in  the  First  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and 
holding  his  seat  for  thirteen  years,  1790  to  1803. 

2 Foster  Papers,  y.  6,  p.  19. 

Arnold’s  History  of  Rhode  Island,”  v.  1,  pp.  v.,  vi. 

4 Ibid.,  v.  1.  pp.  v.,  vi. 

5 R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  v.  7,  p.  8. 

Report  on  “ The  library  and  cabinet  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,” 
1892,  pp.  7,  8. 


22 


sponding  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,1 
and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical 
Society  in  1822. 2 

, Governor  Hopkins’s  use  of  his  own  materials  in  any 
connected  form  was,  as  already  stated,  on  a scale  so  limited 
as  to  disappoint  his  own  larger  expectations,  and  yet,  even 
in  this  fragmentary  condition,  “ The  planting  and  growth 
of  Providence,” 3 — it  has  much  to  attract  our  interest.  It 
is  significant  that  the  very  first  issue  of  the  Providence 
Gazette , October  20,  1762,  contained,  among  other  matters, 
the  first  instalment  of  his  history.  Later,  in  1765,  the 
publication, — interrupted,  as  the  publisher  tells  us,  by  the 
pressure  of  public  duties  during  the  Seven  Years’  War,4  — 
was  resumed,  and  carried  through  eight  numbers  of  that 
paper.  “A  somewhat  remarkable  degree  of  critical  research 
and  judicial  fairness  of  temper  are  plainly  observable  in  his 
historical  writings.  These  are  qualities  not  altogether  com- 
mon among  writers  of  his  time.”  5 

Almost  at  the  same  time  that  Governor  Hopkins  was  at 
work  on  this  narrative,  his  wife’s  kinsman,  Thomas  Hutch- 
inson,— not  himself  a native  of  Rhode  Island,  although  his 
ancestor  was, — was  engaged  on  his  history  of  the  adjoining 
colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  a work  conspicuous  for  these 
same  qualities  of  critical  research  and  judicial  fairness,  and 
in  the  judgment  of  many  scholars, — including  our  associ- 
ate, Dr.  Jameson,6 — reaching  the  highest  level  of  historical 
writing  in  this  country  in  that  century. 

Nor  is  this  catalogue  of  the  Providence  Library  with- 
out its  interest,  as  showing  what  reading  the  inhabitants 
of  Providence  cared  for.  Of  the  Queen  Anne  literature,  al- 
ready referred  to  above,  it  contained  full  sets  of  Pope,  Swift 

1 Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Prbceedings,  v.  1,  p.  134:— 5. 

2 R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  v.  1,  p.  8. 

3 Reprinted  (1885)  in  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  v.  7,  pp.  15-65. 

4 Providence  Gazette,  Jan.  12,  1765. 

5 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  p.  134. 

6 Jameson’s  “ History  of  historical  writing  in  America,”  pp.  76-9. 


23 


and  Addison,  the  Spectator , the  Taller,  and  the  Guardian. 
It  contained  Homer,  Plato,  Shakespeare,  Milton  and  Bacon. 
History  is  well  represented  in  Thucydides,  Plutarch,  Sallust, 
Tacitus,  Clarendon,  Hume,  Burnet,  Prince’s  “New  Eng- 
land chronology,”  etc.,  as  well  as  Herrera  and  La  Hontan. 
Other  lines  of  reading  are  represented  by  Congreve,  Van- 
brugh, and  Gay’s  “Beggar’s  Opera”;  others  by  Coke, 
Vattel,  PuffendorfF  and  Grotius,  and  Thurloe’s  “ State 
papers” ; others  by  Baker  on  the  “ Microscope,”  Woodward 
on  “Fossils,”  Boerhaave  on  “Chemistry,”  Sir  Isaac  Newton’s 
“ Principia,”  and  Benjamin  Franklin’s  “ Experiments  and 
observations  on  electricity,” — then  of  quite  recent  publica- 
tion, and  in  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Charles  W.  Parsons, — a 
nephew  of  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, — of  peculiar  Rhode 
Island  interest,  owing  to  the  very  influential  character  of 
some  suggestions  of  Newport  origin,1  when  brought  to 
Benjamin  Franklin’s  notice. 

There  is  another  series  of  ramifications  of  Berkeley’s  influ- 
ence which  is  of  interest.  Just  on  the  eve  of  his  departure 
for  England,2  in  a hurried  letter  to  his  friend,  philosophical 
disciple,  and  associate  in  the  “Philosophical  Society”  at 
Newport, — the  Rev.  Samuel  Johnson,  of  Stratford,  Con- 
necticut, a graduate  of  Yale  College  in  the  class  of  1714, 
and  afterwards  president  of  what  is  now  Columbia  Col- 
lege,— he  wrote:  “I  have  left  a box  of  books  with  Mr. 
Kay,  to  be  given  away  by  you — the  small  English  books 


1 R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  y.  7,  pp.  245-7.  Dr.  Parsons’s  valuable  study  of 
“ Early  votaries  of  natural  science  in  Rhode  Island,”  — the  extended  scope  of 
which  has  rendered  unnecessary  so  detailed  an  examination  of  that  branch  of 
the  subject  in  the  present  paper  as  would  otherwise  have  been  the  case,— 
traces  this  influential  “hint”  in  regard  to  electricity,  to  William  Claggett,  of 
Newport.  Compare  Ross’s  “Discourse”  at  Newport,  1838,  pp.  35, 36 ; Lyon’s 
“ Colonial  furniture,”  pp.  251-2. 

2 This  exact  date,  only  roughly  conjectured  hitherto,  even  in  the  biography 
by  Dr.  Fraser,  is  found  to  have  been  September  21, 1731,  through  an  entry 
under  that  date  in  an  unpublished  diary  of  Benjamin  Walker.  This  manuscript 
is  in  the  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and  the  writer  is 
indebted  to  Mr.  Hamilton  A.  Hill  for  a knowledge  of  it. 


24 


where  they  may  be  most  serviceable  among  the  people,  the 
others  as  we  agreed  together.”1 

This  brief  line  from  a hurried  letter  is  here  quoted  be- 
cause it  is  so  thoroughly  characteristic  of  Berkeley’s 
methods.  That  the  definite  step  taken  in  1747  in  the 
incorporation  of  the  members  of  Berkeley’s  “Society”  as 
“the  Company”  of  the  “ Bed  wood  Library”  can  be  with 
any  directness  traced  to  Berkeley,  is  not  probable.  This 
action,2  as  we  have  seen,  was  in  accord  with  the  local  tend- 
encies in  the  colony ; indeed,  there  had  been  a parish 
library  connected  with  Trinity  Church  parish, — but  open 
to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  town, — from  a date  so  early  as 
1709, 3 and  very  probably  earlier.  But  as  to  his  uninter- 
rupted desire  to  promote  all  tendencies  towards  enlight- 
enment and  civilization  in  the  infant  colonies,  there  is  no 
room  for  doubt.  Indeed,  both  the  indirect  results  of  his 
influence  (as  in  the  founding  of  King’s  College,  now  Colum- 
bia College)4  as  well  as  the  acts  of  deliberate  purpose 
affecting  institutions  of  education  outside  the  borders  of 
lihode  Island,  strikingly  confirm  this  view.  To  the  repre- 
sentative college  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony,  Harvard 
College,  he  sent,  in  1733,  a valuable  collection  of  the  Greek 
and  Boman  classics,  “most  of  them  the  best  editions,” 
says  President  Quincy;5 — unfortunately  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1764.  To  Yale  College  he  sent  in  the  same  year  (1733) 
nearly  one  thousand  volumes,6  besides  deeding  to  that 
college  his  estate  at  Whitehall.7  That  he  thought  seriously 


1 Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  188. 

2 The  late  William  Hunter  attributes  the  suggestion  to  Abraham  Redwood 
himself.  Newport  Historical  Magazine , v.  2,  p.88. 

3 Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  p.  10;  Mason’s  “ Trinity  Church,”  pp.  18,19. 

4 Chandler’s  ‘‘Life  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson”;  also,  Professor  Moses  Coit 
Tyler’s  chapter  in  Bishop  Perry’s  “History  of  the  American  Episcopal 
Church,”  v.  1,  p.  539. 

s Quincy’s  “ History  of  Harvard  University,”  v.  2,  p.  481. 

s Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  pp.  194-5.  Porter’s  “Berkeley,”  p.  47. 

7 Porter’s  “Berkeley,”  pp.  81-84;  See  Berkeley’s  “Works,”  v.  4,  pp.  192-5, 
where  the  full  text  of  the  deed  is  printed. 


25 


of  substituting  Rhode  Island  in  place  of  Bermuda,  as  the 
site  of  the  university  which  it  had  been  his  main  hope  to 
establish  in  this  western  world,  appears  from  a conversation 
reported  by  Col.  Daniel  Updike,1  thus  anticipating  by  a 
third  of  a century  the  actual  establishment  of  a college  in 
Rhode  Island,  and  unquestionably  having  an  important  bear- 
ing on  the  steps  leading  to  it.  Obviously  this  last  benignant 
act  of  the  departing  scholar,  expressed  in  his  letter  to 
Johnson,  was  but  one  of  several  similar  distributions  of 
collections  of  books,  which  he  plainly  regarded  as  effective 
civilizing  agencies.  Mention  has  incidentally  been  made 
of  the  observation  of  the  transit  of  Venus  in  1769,  by 
Benjamin  West, — later  in  life  a professor  of  astronomy  in 
Rhode  Island  College,2 — at  that  time  a bookseller  in  Provi- 
dence, the  earlier  in  order  of  birth  of  the  two  Benjamin 
Wests3  who  attained  eminence  in  the  last  century.  The 
whole  bent  in  the  direction  of  science  given  to  the  devel- 
oping mind  of  this  American  boy  (born  in  1730, 4 during 
Berkeley’s  residence  at  Newport,  and  brought  up  at  Bristol, 
Rhode  Island,  where  a collaborator  of  Berkeley’s  was  in 
charge  of  a parish  of  the  Church  of  England5  ),  is  directly 
attributed  by  West’s  biographer  to  his  access  to  one  of  these 
small  collections  of  imperishable  literature,  “formed,”  he 
says,  when  Berkeley  “ distributed  his  books  among  the 
clergy.”6  “From  these  works,”  he  adds,  “West  com- 
menced his  acquaintance  with  the  philosophy  of  Newton,” 
and  later,  “bent  his  whole  mind”  to  astronomy.  As  is 
well  known,  the  two  transits  of  Venus  in  the  last  century 


1 W.  Updike’s  “ Memoirs  of  the  Rhode-Island  bar,”  p.  62. 

2 Triennial  catalogue  of  Brown  University,  1886,  p.  xiii. 

3 Benjamin  West,  the  artist,  a native  of  Pennsylvania,  was  born  in  1738. 

4 In  what  was  then  Relioboth,  Mass.,  adjacent  to  the  Rhode  Island  line. 

5 The  Rev.  John  Usher.  See  reports  and  abstracts  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  1713-83,  in  Updike’s  “ Episcopal  Church  in  Narra- 
gansett,”  pp.  454-5. 

R.  I.  Literary  Repository,  v.  1,  Oct.,  1814,  p.  142.  (The  paging  “ 142  ” is  a 
misprint  for  342.) 


26 


occurred  in  1761  and  1769,  respectively.1  The  John 
Winthrop2  of  that  generation,  Hollis  Professor  of  Mathe- 
matics and  Natural  Philosophy  in  Harvard  College,  from 
1738  to  1779,  had,  in  1761,  observed  the  transit  of  that 
year  from  the  island  of  Newfoundland.3  In  1769,  not  only 
in  Cambridge  but  in  Providence,  the  recurrence  of  the  phe- 
nomena was  awaited  with  great  interest.  The  three  men 
who  there  made  most  diligent  preparation  for  it  were  West, 
the  correspondent  and  collaborator  of  Winthrop ; Stephen 
Hopkins,  whose  mathematical  training  had  been  extensive,4 
and  who  was  already  a member 5 of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society,  of  Philadelphia;  and  Joseph  Brown,  later 
in  life  a professor  in  Rhode  Island  College,6 — already  in 
existence,  and  in  the  next  year  (1770)7  to  be  removed  to 
its  new  location  at  Providence, — one  of  the  distinguished 
family  who  had  helped  to  give  Providence  its  commercial 
preeminence,  and  later  gave  the  college  its  endowment. 
He  was  a man  whose  acquirement  of  what  was  in  his  time 
regarded  as  very  much  more  than  “a  competence,”  enabled 
him  most  fortunately  to  gratify  a very  marked  taste  for 
physical  science.  The  instruments  to  be  used  in  the  obser- 
vation of  the  transit  were  made  in  London  by  Mr.  Brown’s 
order  and  at  his  expense.8  The  publication  in  which  the 
account  of  the  operations  is  narrated,  already  cited  above, 

1 See  Proctor’s  “ Transits  of  Venus,”  pp.  27-92. 

2 Professor  Winthrop  was  brother-in-law  to  the  Rev.  Samuel  Fayerweather, 
rector  of  St.  Paul’s  Church,  at  Narragansett,  1780-74.  Updike’s  “ Episcopal 
Church  at  Narragansett,”  p.  359;  Popular  Science  Monthly , v.  39,  p.  481. 

3 Described  in  his  pamphlet,  “ Relation  of  a voyage  from  Boston  to  New- 
foundland for  the  observation  of  the  Transit  of  Venus,  June  6, 1761.”  Boston, 
1761.  See  the  biographical  sketch;  with  portrait,  in  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
v.  39,  pp.  721,  837-42. 

4 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  p.  126;  pt.  2,  pp.  107-9.  Compare  also, 
West’s  “Dedication”  of  his  pamphlet,  “An  account  of  the  observation  of 
Venus,”  etc. 

s “ Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,”  v.  1,  p.  xvii. ; 
elected  April  1,  1768. 

3 “ Triennial  catalogue”  of  Brown  University,  1886,  p.  xiii. 

7 Guild’s  “ History  of  Brown  University,”  p.  13. 

8 West’s  “Account,”  p.  11. 


27 


was  written  by  Benjamin  West.  It  is  a well-printed  pam- 
phlet1 2 of  twenty-two  pages,  and  is  provided  with  a diagram 
showing  the  positions  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  A memoir 
of  the  observations 9 was  sent3  by  West  to  the  Royal 
Society  of  London,  to  which  society,  says  Mr.  Proctor,4 
“probably  as  many  as  four  hundred”  such  memoirs,  from 
different  parts  of  the  world,  were  forwarded.5  At  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  there  were  also  interested  and  accom- 
plished observers,  on  this  occasion,  the  operations6  being 
conducted  by  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles,  a native  of  Connecticut,7  a 
graduate  from  Yale  College  in  1746,  and  afterwards,  from 
1778  to  1795,  president  of  that  college,  who  had  since 
1755  been  settled  over  a church8  in  Newport.  It  is  of 
interest  to  note  that  the  expense  of  constructing  the 
instruments  there  used  was  borne  in  part  by  Abraham 
Redwood,9  the  enlightened  patron  of  science  as  well  as 
literature,  and  that  they  were  constructed  in  part  by 
Joseph  Harrison,  brother10  of  Peter  Harrison,  the  archi- 
tect, whose  connection  with  the  Philosophical  Society  dated 
very  nearly  from  Berkeley’s  time.11  I have  thus  far  failed 
to  find  a record  of  observations  of  this  transit  in  more  than 


1 « printed  by  John  Carter,  at  Shakespeare’s  Head,”  in  Providence. 

2 An  abstract  also  appears  in  the  “ Transactions  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society,”  v.  1,  p.  97. 

3 Rhode  Island  Literary  Repository,  v.  1,  p.  345. 

4 Proctor’s  “ Transits  of  Venus,”  p.  85.  i 

5 The  other  gentlemen  participating  with  West,  Hopkins  and  Brown,  in  the 
Providence  observation,  were  Moses  Brown,  Jabez  Bowen  and  Capt.  John 
Burrough. 

6 West’s  “ Account,”  p.  12. 

7 See  Professor  J.  L.  Kingsley’s  “ Life  of  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles,”  pp.  17, 18,  where 
other  scientific  researches  of  Dr.  Stiles  are  recorded. 

8 Although  a resident  of  Newport  for  nearly  twenty-five  years,  Dr.  Stiles  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  been  greatly  modified  by  the  atmosphere  of  the  place, 
unfavorable  to  dogmatism  as  it  was.  No  hesitation  to  judge  in  the  premises  is 
apparent  in  the  following  entry  in  one  of  his  interleaved  almanacs:  “Gen. 
Ethan  Allen  of  Vermont  died  and  went  to  Hell  this  day.”  (Feb.  13,  1789.)  (R. 

I.  Hist.  Soc.  Proceedings,  1891-2,  p.  82.) 

9  West’s  “ Account,”  p.  12. 

10  Mason’s  “ Redwood  Library,”  p.  41. 

11  Ibid.,  pp.  34-5. 


28 


four  New  England  localities  : Cambridge,  Newbury,  Provi- 
dence and  Newport, — and  Professor  Newcomb’s  very  care- 
ful study1  of  the  transit  names  no  others, — and  it  is  not  a 
little  singular  that  two  out  of  this  total  of  four  should  be  in 
Rhode  Island.  West’s  observation  of  this  transit  was  only 
a part  of  a long  career  given  up  to  astronomical  observa- 
tions.2 In  November  of  the  same  year  (1769),  occurred  a 
transit  of  Mercury,  which  he  also  observed,3  undoubtedly 
with  the  same  instruments.4  In  July,  1770,  also,  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  comet  of  that  year  gave  him  an  opportunity 
of  determining  its  perihelion,  from  three  observations  ; and 
in  the  same  year,  he  observed  the  satellites  of  Jupiter.  In 
1781,  he  observed  the  eclipse  of  the  sun5  at  Providence. 
Among  his  other  achievements,  it  may  be  mentioned,  is  a 
table  of  Jupiter’s  satellites,  from  1760  to  1810,  inclusive. 
“In  short,”  says  the  writer  of  the  biographical  sketch  of 
him,  published  in  1814,  “his  whole  life  seems  to  have  been 
almost  a continued  course  of  mathematical  and  astronomical 
labours.”0  In  his  “Miscellaneous  tracts,”  a repository  of 
his  calculations,  he  adds,  “ we  find  the  sun  and  moon’s 
places,  and  many  eclipses  calculated  in  the  years  1778,  1780, 
1781,  1782,  1783,  1787,  1790,  1791,  1792,  1793,  together 
with  a great  variety  of  astronomical  tables.”  He  received  in 
1770  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  from  Harvard  College,7 
apparently  on  Professor  Winthrop’s  suggestion,  as  may  be 
inferred  from  Winthrop’s  letter  to  West,  of  July  19,  1770, 8 
and  in  1792,  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  Rhode 

1 See  Professor  Simon  Newcomb’s  “ Discussions  of  the  transits  of  Venus  in 
1761  and  1769,”  pp.  320,  338,  345,  355,  365,  382  and  397  (1891).  Also,  Encke’s 
“ Der  Venusdurchgang  von  1769.’* 

2 Partially  enumerated  in  Rhode  Island  Literary  Repository,  v.  1,  pp.  144 
(344),  152  (352). 

3 Rhode  Island  Literary  Repository,  v.  1,  p.  145  (345). 

4 Now  preserved  in  Wilson  Hall  at  Brown  University. 

s Reported  in  the  “ Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences,” v.  1,  pp.  156-8. 

6 R.  I.  Lit.  Repository,  v.  1,  p.  152  (352). 

7 Harvard  Quinquennial  Catalogue,  1890,  pp.  314-15. 

8 R.  I.  Lit.  Repository,  v.  1,  p.  146  (346). 


29 


Island  College.1  With  the  exception  of  one  year,  1787-8, 
spent  at  Philadelphia,  in  intimacy  with  Franklin,2  he 
passed  his  entire  mature  life  in  Providence.  In  1786,  he 
became  a member  of  the  faculty  of  Rhode  Island  College, 
which  position  he  held  until  1798, 3 and  in  1787,  he  was 
elected  to  a position  in  the  faculty  of  Columbia  College, 
which  he  declined.4  He  was  a member  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  and  also  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  in  whose  rooms  we  are  now  assem- 
bled, being  elected  in  1781. 5 The  first  volume  of  its 
“Memoirs”  contains  papers6  by  him  and  by  Joseph  Brown 
already  mentioned  above. 

What  as  to  the  enduring  nature,  on  Rhode  Island  soil, 
of  those  tendencies  towards  idealism,  in  thought  and  life, 
which  we  have  already  noticed  as  characterizing  the  early 
centuries?  To  quote  from  a recent  address  by  a distin- 
guished member  of  this  Society, — Dr.  Hale, — this  tend- 
ency has  not,  “ for  any  one  generation,  been  without  a 
living  witness  of  the  first  power  and  authority  within  her 
borders,”7 — a statement  which  it  is  easy  to  accept  in  view 
of  notable  instances  such  as  Samuel  Hopkins,  whose  remark- 
able philosophical  postulates  have  recently  been  so  admira- 
bly treated  by  Professor  A.  Y.  G.  Allen,  of  Cambridge8; 
William  Ellery  Channing,  descendant  of  the  William 
Ellery  of  Berkeley’s  “ Society,”  the  delicacy  of  whose 

1 Brown  University  Triennial  catalogue,  1886,  p.  79. 

2 R.  I.  Lit.  Repository,  v.  1,  pp.  154-5  (354-5). 

3 Brown  University  Triennial  Catalogue,  1886,  p.  xiii. 

4 R.  I.  Literary  Repository,  v.  1,  p.  355. 

5 Ibid.,  p.  353.  “ Memoirs  of  the  Am.  Acad.,”  v.  1,  p.  xxii. 

s Vol.  1,  pp.  149-50, 156-8, 165-72. 

7 “ Hazard  Memorial  ” address,  1891,  p.  22. 

8 Atlantic  Monthly , Dec.,  1891,  v.  68,  p.  767-80.  It  is  significant  that  Dr. 
Allen  recognizes  this  tendency  in  the  atmosphere  of  Newport,  when  he  says  of 
Hopkins  (p.  780),  that  “ the  town  made  an  impression  on  him.”  Dr.  Fraser’s 
suggestion  that  Hopkins’s  teacher  and  master,  Jonathan  Edwards,  may  have 
come  under  the  influence  of  Berkeley  through  being  “ one  of  Johnson’s  pupils 
at  Yale  College”  (Berkeley’s  “ Works,”  v.  4,  p.  182),  encounters  the  difficulty 
of  the  division  of  what  was  Yale  College,  in  1716-20,  between  Wethersfield  and 
New  Haven.  (Dexter’s  “Annals”  of  Yale  College,  pp.  123,  218.) 


30 


thought  gives  everywhere  almost  unmistakable  evidences  of 
his  hereditary  antecedents  ; Job  Durfee,  in  the  view  of  Dr. 
Porter1  of  Yale  College,  a representative  of  the  Berkeleyan 
doctrine  in  the  present  century ; and  Rowland  G Hazard, 
a writer  who,  dying  in  Rhode  Island  so  recently  as  1888, 
has  left  a distinct  mark  on  the  psychological  thought  of 
our  time,  and  a writer  of  whom  his  powerful  opponent  in 
discussion,  John  Stuart  Mill,  wrote  : “ It  is  a real  pleasure 
to  have  you  for  an  antagonist.”2  * 

If  so  noteworthy  a stage  of  advancement  was  reached  in 
Rhode  Island,3  and  so  noteworthy  impulses  communicated 
from  her  to  other  colonies,  it  is  certainly  a fair  question  to 
ask,  how  it  happens  that  since  1780,  she  has  not  merely 
not  held  her  own,  but  has  been  distinctly  distanced  by  many 
of  her  sister  States. 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that  we  have  thus  far  said  noth- 
ing of  systems  of  common-school  education.  The  omission 
is  not  the  result  of  oversight,  but  the  consideration  of  the 
failure  of  Rhode  Island  to  act4  in  this  fundamentally  impor- 
tant matter  has  been  postponed  to  this  stage  of  the  discus- 
sion, because  .herein  lies  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that, 
notwithstanding  the  obvious  advantages  in  Rhode  Island’s 
favor,  on  which  we  have  been  dwelling,  slje  has,  since  1780, 
failed  to  hold  such  preeminence  as  might  reasonably  have 
been  expected.  So  early  as  1647,  the  General  Court  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony  enacted  as  follows  : — 

“y1  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  ye  grave  of  or  fathrs 

1 Porter’s  “Berkeley,”  p.  38. 

2 Letter  of  Nov.  16, 1866.  (“ Biographical  preface”  to  Hazard’s  “Essay  on 

language  ” ; ed.  1889,  p.  xi.) 

3 The  scope  of  this  paper  does  not  admit  of  following  out  the  very  note- 
worthy impulses  transmitted  through  Benjamin  Franklin’s  agency,  and  through 
his  intimate  association  with  Hopkins,  Ward,  Greene,  West,  Claggett,  Carter 
and  others.  Franklin  was  a man  whose  influence  was  very  impartially  distrib- 
uted through  the  different  colonies,  and  in  this,  Rhode  Island  had  an  influential 
share. 

4 Failure  to  act,  as  a colony,  is  meant.  Sporadic  attempts  in  individual  towns 
are  met  with  at  an  early  date,  as  at  Newport  in  1640.  (Arnold’s  “Rhode 
Island,”  v.  1,  p.  145.)  A “Latin  school”  was  opened  at  Newport  in  1716. 
(Mason’s  “ Trinity  Church,”  p.  37.) 


31 


in  ye  church  & comonwealth,  the  Lord  assisting  or  endeavors, 
— It  is  therefore  ordred  yt  evry  township  in  this  iurisdiction, 
aftr  ye  Lord  hath  increased  ym  to  ye  number  of  50  household1,8, 
shall  then  forthwth  appoint  one  wthin  their  towne  to  teach  all 
such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him  to  write  & read.” 1 

The  other  Puritan  colonies  followed  this  example,  and  by 
the  year  1649,  to  quote  from  what  the  present  writer  has 
said  elsewhere,  “every  other  New  England  colony  had 
made  education  compulsory,”2  but  in  Rhode  Island,  “the 
exaggerated  form  in  which  the  doctrine  of  separation  had 
come  to  be  held  gave  the  public  a succession  of  religious 
ministers”  who  were  in  too  many  instances  without  special 
training,  “and  successive  generations  of  children  with  no 
opportunities  for  education.”3 

In  Massachusetts,  the  steps  taken  so  early  as  1647  in  due 
time  had  telling  effect.  The  magnificent  period  from  1830 
to  1890,  the  golden  age  of  Massachusetts, — the  period  in 
which  the  best  work  of  Emerson,  of  Holmes,  of  Longfellow, 
of  Whittier,  and  of  Lowell  was  performed, — is  the  splendid 
fruitage  of  that  early  act  of  enlightened  foresight.  Rhode 
Island  is  a smaller  State,  it  is  true,  but  even  setting  aside 
the  obvious  disadvantage  under  which  the  more  intelligent 
elements  of  its  population  labored,  in  1786-90,  in  questions 
depending  on  the  popular  vote,  one  finds  there,  since  the 
year  1780,  nothing  even  remotely  approaching  this  state  of 
things  ; nor  did  we  need  Mr.  Lodge’s  summaries  as  to 
the  distribution  of  ability  in  the^United  States,4  to  show 


1 Mass.  Colonial  Records,  v.  2,  p.  203.  Cf.  the  claims  made  in  Mr.  A.  S. 
Draper’s  article,  Educational  Review,  April,  1892,  v.  3,  pp.  313-36. 

2 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  p.  41.  It  is  obvious  that  the  notable 
advantages  of  private  tutors  and  private  libraries  could  not,  iu  the  nature  of 
the  case,  be  depended  on  as  hereditary  in  every  instance.  As  the  population 
of  Rhode  Island  increased  there  was  an  ever-widening  gulf  between  the  edu- 
cated few  and  the  uneducated  mass.  There  was  never,  perhaps,  a more  im- 
pressive exemplification  of  Matthew  Arnold’s  suggestive  declaration  as  to  the 
true  “ secret  of  rich  and  beautiful  epochs  in  national  life”  (“  Essays  in  criti- 
cism,” 1st  series,  p.  494). 

3 Foster’s  “ Stephen  Hopkins,”  pt.  1,  p.  41. 

4 The  Century,  Sept.,  1891,  v.  42,  p.  687-94. 


3 0112  058794287 


32 

us  how  disappointing,  comparatively,  have  been  the  Nine- 
teenth Century’s  achievements  in  Rhode  Island.  It  is  for 
us  to  remember,  however,  that  the  record  is  not  yet  closed  ; 
and  that  if  this  republic  endures,  much  is  yet  to  be  seen ; 
that  Rhode  Island  has  already  in  the  last  sixty  years  done 
much  to  put  itself  on  a level  with  its  neighboring  States,  as 
regards  educational  advantages  : that  evidences  are  abun- 
dant,  as  just  cited,  to  prove  that  the  idealistic  tendency  is 
still  strong  there,  and  that  only  the  future  can  reveal  what 
the  working  of  that  tendency,  under  new  conditions  and 
more  favorable  surroundings  may  develop. 


